In part one of this series we covered how to set up a product feed and submit it to Google. In this installment we’re going to focus on properly setting up Product Listing Ads (PLA) in Google AdWords so you can maximize your exposure in Google search.
There’s a lot going on in Google’s search results and they seem to add more every day. If we look at the above-the-fold results for a search for “fruit baskets,” we can see regular text ads, a map with local results, PLA and the first few organic spots. With the right product photos, the PLA are the most eye-catching part of the page which is a huge advantage with all the clutter.
Steps to Set Up Google Product Listing Ads
Since you already have your feed created and submitted after reading part 1 of this series, setting up your PLA ads will be a breeze.
Link Your Accounts
First, link your AdWords and Google Merchant Center accounts.
Log into your Merchant Center account, then click on Settings in the left navigation and AdWords from the menu that pops up after clicking on Settings. On the AdWords page, enter your AdWords customer ID. This looks like a phone number and can be found at the top of the page when you are logged into AdWords. You can connect Merchant Center to multiple AdWords accounts if necessary.
Create a New Campaign
Next, create a new campaign within AdWords to house your PLA.
Product Listing Ads should have their own campaigns for ease of management. Your PLA campaign needs to target Google Search at a minimum and can also target Search Partners. The campaign does not need to target the display network as PLA are not show there.
When you set up the campaign, select the checkbox next to Product in the Ad Extensions section of the page. The Merchant Center account you connected to your AdWords account should appear.
Don’t worry if you forget to do this step when you set up the account. You can always come back and do it later here or through the Ad Extensions tab within the campaign.
If there are products in your feed that you do not want used in your PLA, you can filter the available products by navigating to the Ad Extensions tab. This may be useful if you have products that do not have compelling images, have low margins, or that you are contractually prevented from buying ads for. From the Ad Extensions tab, click on the product extension to edit it, then check the box next to Filter.
This will give you the option to create filters based on fields in your feed. Use these filters toinclude products in your campaign, not to exclude them.
Create Ad Groups
Now comes the fun part. You need to decide the best way to organize your ad groups. You may choose to do this by the product brand, type, condition or any combination thereof.
You should organize your ad groups in a way that allows you to easily view the performance data in a way that is helpful to your business. So, if you sell new and vintage handbags, you may want to create ad groups such as:
- Gucci – New
- Gucci – Vintage
- Chanel – New
- Chanel – Vintage
Organizing your ad groups like this will allow you to quickly see your conversion rate and other performance data for each brand and each type. Be creative with your ad group organization so it gives you the most value when reviewing the performance metrics. But, don’t make your ad groups so granular that the data becomes meaningless. You can use up to three product targets per ad group so use them wisely.
Once you’ve decided how to organize your ad groups, create the first ad group in your PLA campaign and name it appropriately. When asked to enter ad text, click the radio button next to Product Listing Ad.
At this point you will have the opportunity to enter a promotion which will be displayed with your PLA. You can use this section to advertise a coupon code or other special. You can enter a promotion now, later or never. Having a promotion will not affect the serving of your ads.*
Uncheck the “all products” setting that is selected in the auto targets section of the ad group set up page. Once the ad group is created, you will select the products that should be targeted in this ad group.
You do not need to enter keywords for the ad group. Google will use your product feed to match your products to (hopefully) appropriate search queries.
Enter an appropriate CPC bid for the ad group
After saving your new ad group, you will be directed to the auto targets tab, provided that you deselected the all products auto target while creating the ad group.
Click the add product target button to add the product filter(s) for this ad group. Select the field to be used to match each criteria you enter, and enter the criteria in the text box. The text you enter here must match what is in your feed exactly or your PLA won’t show.
Repeat this process for all ad groups.
Create Ads
With PLA, you don’t need to write ad text like you do with normal AdWords advertising. Instead, Google creates ads based on the data in your feed. But, as mentioned above, you can test special promotion text.
If you don’t have any promotions you want to test, or only have one and you entered it while creating your campaigns, you don’t have anything else to do for this step. If you do want to run more than one special at a time, navigate to the ads tab to create a new promotion by selecting product listing ads from the new ad drop down.
Enter your new promotion and save the ad. Just don’t forget to update the ad when you stop running the special.
Creating multiple product listing ads is ideal for testing how different promotions affect your CTR and conversion rate since you won’t be doing traditional ad text optimization.
Launch
Okay, maybe not just yet. If you think you may need some negative keywords (you probably do), you’ll want to wait until part
three four of this series in which we will discuss negative keywords and feed optimization. (We promised we’d cover optimization in part three but it was important to cover tracking first so optimization has been moved to part four of the series.)
But, if you want to do a test run and start collecting data so you are ready to act on the optimization recommendations, make sure your budget is set to something you are comfortable with so you don’t overspend. If you aren’t ready, pause the campaign and come back for part three.
*Product listing ads do have quality scores much like regular AdWords advertising. Utilizing promotions to increase CTR may improve your PLA quality score, thereby increasing your ad position and decreasing your actual CPC.
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